Editorial: Jeff Morales has to show us the bullet train will work -- New head of agency must persuade wary public

A man named Jeff Morales just started on what could be a great job. He'll make as much as $375,000 a year. He'll have political power over a hot issue. If things go well, he'll get to play with trains all day.

He is not to be envied.

As the recently named CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Morales will be responsible for convincing residents and legislators that it's prudent for a cash-strapped state to commit tens of billions of dollars to build a futuristic bullet train. Maybe he can do it. But it's a tall order.

In terms of public opinion, the bullet-train proposal has been losing steam since voters, in 2008, approved $9.9 billion in construction bonds to get the project started. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll last week showed 59 percent now would vote against the same measure, including 67 percent of Southern Californians. Only 33 percent said they would prefer to take high-speed rail -- instead of a plane or car -- when traveling between the L.A. and San Francisco areas.

In other words, Californians increasingly see high-speed rail as the big train that shouldn't.

The skepticism begins with the price tag. Having approved the bonds for a project they were told would cost $33 billion, voters found out last year that the estimate had risen to nearly $100 billion, before backers trimmed that figure in April to $68.4 billion.

The skepticism continues with concerns about service and safety on the 220-mph line. How much of either would riders be giving up because of the budget cuts?

Then there are the concerns of environmentalists and agricultural landowners.

That part of the controversy only heated up last week when the San Jose Mercury News reported Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking legislation to make it harder for environmentalists to secure court-ordered injunctions against rail construction. Opponents say the project should not be exempt from the state's environmental standards. They're right.

Showing people why they should believe in the project now is the job of Morales, a former Caltrans chief and Clinton and Obama administration official who has been serving as a consultant to the High-Speed Rail Authority as an executive of the construction management firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. As CEO, Morales replaces Roelof van Ark, who resigned in January after some political fumbles.

Morales' immediate task is to persuade the Legislature to approve the $6 billion first phase of construction by the end of this summer, guaranteeing federal funding. His larger goal must be to persuade the public that it wants the bullet train and would still want it by the time full service between California's two largest metropolitan areas would be scheduled to begin in 2029.

Californians should remain open to argument about the value of the bullet train. But Morales will have to show more in the way of evidence than the High-Speed Rail Authority's leaders have delivered so far.

State residents want to hear why they should believe that the bullet train's promoters, who have been all over the map about the project's likely costs, can produce an affordable and worthwhile transportation option for future generations.